News: Zoggs to launch Ecolast™ swimwear made from ocean waste

With an estimated 12.7 million tonnes of debris entering our oceans every year, it's no surprise the pollution caused by plastic, microbeads and unsustainable fishing nets is harming our marine life. Fishing nets are the invisible killer taking a whopping 600 years to decompose.

At Zoggs, we’re passionate about the ocean and we want to help protect our world for the future. Our mission is to transform the waste that covers our oceans and landfills into high performance swimwear made with ECONYL® yarn. Our Ecolast™ swimwear begins its life as plastic waste which would otherwise cause damage to our planet, oceans and marine life. Abandoned ghost fishing nets are rescued from the oceans, carpet (which also takes hundreds of years to degrade) and industrial waste are saved from landfill, through different initiatives and projects such as The ECONYL® Reclaiming Program, The Healthy Seas initiative, and Net-Works™.

Once the nets are cleaned and shredded, the regeneration process begins. At the ECONYL® depolymerisation plant, the prepared waste returns to a raw material where it is transformed into Nylon 6 polymers used to produce the ECONYL® yarn. Made from 100% regenerated waste material, the yarn performs as well as any other nylon yarn manufactured using crude oil.

The Ecolast™ fabric is made using 78% ECONYL® yarn and 22% LYCRA® XTRA LIFE™ for a soft, comfortable, high performance swimwear fabric. We've put the fabric through its paces in real life conditions and it outperformed our competitors’ fabrics, proving to be 15 times more resilient to chlorine than standard swimwear fabrics.

Our Ecolast™ swimwear will be introduced in our AW18 season (July) with the main launch in January 2019. Around 40% of our SS19 swimwear will be made from Ecolast™. We'll donate 10% of our Ecolast™ profits to a charity committed to helping our oceans. We’re also dedicated to creating packaging that reduces our environmental impact. As such we'll reduce the plastic used in our goggle packaging by 57% from 2019 with the aim to have 100% sustainable packaging (across our product range) by 2020. Our view is if you're going to make a difference, you need to make a difference.

“We’re passionate about the ocean and doing what we can to protect the environment. We’re thrilled to be launching Ecolast™ and we’re committed to creating more sustainable product packaging. We’re excited about the future and doing what we can to make a difference” Mark Hammersley, CEO Zoggs International.

"I am hugely excited to be supporting Zoggs UK with their launch of Ecolast. For me, the idea of using discarded fishing nets that are cluttering our oceans, recycling them and creating swim suits from the recycled yarn, brings a beautiful cycle and message of ocean conservation to the swim wear market. To work closely with a pioneering brand who are thinking about the wider global issues and matters of importance for our planet and our future generations is exactly why I am proud to work alongside ZoggsUK as their ambassador" Susie Rodgers MBE, Paralympic Gold medallist, multiple European and British record holder

If you want to find out more on how Ecolast™ came about, read our Q&A with Campaign magazine "If brands aren't helping the environment, they are part of the problem"

Shop the initial Ecolast™ collection here.

For media enquiries: Please contact Charly Dove (Social Media & PR Manager) charly.dove@zoggs.com.